CE Week #10: “WASL ’success’ raises questions”
Kate Riley
Seattle Times
November 1, 2007
You could have knocked me over with a WASL test book.
My 10-year-old son received a letter signed by Gov. Christine Gregoire and Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson. “Congratulations!” it started. “… We are very proud of you, and you should be very proud of yourself.”
Apparently, my son “achieved the state reading, writing and mathematics learning standards.”
Here’s the punch line to my son’s letter. He is autistic in a self-contained special-education classroom with limited mainstreaming, can read some words, can add a little and can barely draw a straight line. Much as it pains me, I told my colleagues a few months ago, there is no way my pride and joy will ever meet state learning standards.
And then he did – or so they say.
Recently, a bright young acquaintance confided she didn’t pass the fourth-grade math test. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her my son, whose limitations she is aware of, nailed it!
I’m feeling a little hoodwinked.
I was an editorial writer before I was a mother. I drank the high-standards Kool-Aid way back in 1993 when education reform started. I was moved by my work as a tutor for an adult literacy program. I was stunned to learn my student with a third-grade reading level had graduated high school. If she had gotten help at 10 instead of 30, her whole life might have been different.
Since then, I have written scores of editorials supporting the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. I defended keeping standards high.
“The diploma has to mean something,” I argued. Over. And over. And over.
As the stakes ratcheted up to become the threshold for graduation this year, I was persuaded to spike my WASL Kool-Aid with a little accommodation.
Sure, let’s have alternative ways to pass the WASL. The students still have to meet standards, they’ll just do it in different ways. So a kid who has test anxiety gets to show he meets the same high standards in a different way, in a portfolio of work.
Which is how my son took the test – by portfolio in the Washington Alternate Assessment System. It was a meticulously kept body of work, representing honest, hard effort and, indeed, progress. But it did not – repeat, did not – meet any common-sense interpretation of fourth-grade standards.
Turns out, in education’s semantics wonderland, there are standards and then there are standards. Under the No Child Left Behind policy, the federal government requires states to establish standards for special-education students. In Washington, special-education students have only to meet their own personal “standard” based on the goals in their annually revised Individual Education Plans.
There is no accountability to ensure these individual special-education “standards” aren’t low-balled, although state officials say accountability measures are on the way.
OK. Let’s get this straight. This stupid assessment doesn’t change the worth of my kid, or any kid. He’s still the nicest, most fun member of the family to be around and he’s got great taste in music.
But what these tests should tell us honestly is whether a student meets one reasonable minimum standard of academic achievement – for all kids. Most can – with work and support. Sadly – and this is from one parent who struggles out of denial every day – some cannot. That’s a fact.
“You don’t want him to count against the school, do you?” was a question I heard more than once as I asked questions. Well, no, but I don’t want him to artificially inflate the school’s success rate, either. I especially don’t want to let schools off the hook if they are failing younger versions of my adult student years ago, who, when given a chance, advanced quickly to ninth-grade reading level.
Most troubling to me is the larger public-policy implication of my son’s letter. He goes in the “pass” column for his school, his district and the state. He is a supporting statistic in federal reports to show adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind program.
I hold this astonishing letter in my hands, and can’t help but feel like a co-conspirator in a public sham.
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Well, so this is another reason why the WASL sucks. Actually, the whole system is broken. I agree with the writer in all aspects of the article. There definitely needs to be accountability in the goals that are set annually in the IEPs. This sort of also makes me think; if and when there is accountability, will it make a difference? I think that these kids should have high goals set, not just the basic, small improvement goals that the state will likely set. The goals need to be set higher because if they aren’t, they may still graduate from high school and still not know how to read or do simple arithmetic. This also leads me toward another thought. Are schools giving special ed students very loose goals just so they can “pass” the WASL and get help out the school’s record? I’m sure there is at least some pressure to do so, since the school doesn’t want to be known as a poorly performing one.
Maybe we should make special ed students exempt from needing to pass the WASL and just make sure they learn the stuff they need to learn the right way. The same goes for regular students I believe. I’ve noticed that ever since the WASL began to be administered, school curriculums are just teaching to the WASL, and there’s a lot less of teaching real “life lessons” that are more meaningful than knowing how to measure the volume of a cylinder. Scrap the WASL.
-Jason Wong
Ha ha. The WASL. This subject is probably brought up everyday at school. It is the most useless test I have ever heard of or taken. I completely agree with the writer in this article. With both my parents having background in special ed, I hear all about the IEP’s and the WASL. I can not count how many times my dad will come home and have some hilarious story about the WASL. These kids have to do pages among pages just for these IEP’s. These kids are making goals for themselves, but how many of them are making these goals that they know they are going to achieve. That is what I would do. If my graduation is depending upon my goals, I know for a fact my goals would be easily achievable. Not only is all this extra work not necessary, it costs a ton of money. It costs the teachers all this extra time to prepare for the IEP’s. The one thing that makes me the most mad is the focus on the WASL from teachers. Instead of learning for the future and college, we are learning for a test that will allow us to graduate from high school. The math section of the WASL just bugs the crap out of me. Taking the test as a sophmore, I was taking Trig and totally had been out of all the math the WASL asks for a while. Its not like a junior class will cover the WASL so it is difficult to test everyones ability. The test is just a joke.
I disagree with JWONG that the WASL sucks. The WASL is necessary tool in evaluating students learning progression. In other states, such as New Mexico students have tests that evaluate how much they learned throughout their high school career. If they don’t pass the test, then they don’t graduate. Tests like these make sure that students just don’t go through the motions that are evolved in work; but that they actually get a good grasp on it and that it stays with them. The WASL is an essential tool and should have just as much importance placed on it as it does.
My personal experience of the WASL is that it was pretty easy. I passé all sections and this was during my first year in Washington. I believe that too many people make it to large of a deal when they could be better preparing themselves for the test. I do understand that is only focusing on the main curricular subjects, but those are the most important and the ones that students should get the best grasp on.
Well I have to disagree with Mattieu, on disagreeing with JWONG. Sorry, but here’s my position, only because I know from hardened and painful experience how nasty and unnecessary this test really is.
I have been through five schools. I lived in Portland for 12 years, and switched between public schools through second grade, to private schools from 3rd grade up until 8th grade. It was a rather nasty surprise when I arrived at Mt. Spokane High my freshman year being scrutinized because the system had no WASL test results…from ANY grade. I was laughed at, stared at, told I would most likely not be able to graduate high school, and told I would possibly have to “catch up”, which would require me taking the old WASL’s. Now, this all may sound extreme to you, but none of this is false. It was like someone told me to swallow a brick.
I have never been good at math. After switching so many schools, I had holes in my curriculum that prevented me from understanding a lot of things that many other students do well with. For example, I gave up on math after taking Algebra twice and taking Geometry once, and failing miserably. It was pure emotional pain, and all the WASL did was aggravate it.
This is not meant to be a sob story. Don’t beat on my life experiences. This is meant to show you how this test does not accurately represent what is going on, and how it absolutely KILLS a persons confidence levels and possibly career choices. Keep reading.
The first time I took the WASL we had a huge meeting, the whole sophomore class. Do you all remember? Well, do you all remember that I kept bugging the administrator in charge with questions? I wanted this test to justify itself. It had to make sense. It didn’t.
List of questions that were NOT answered and have never BEEN answered:
1) What do you do about students like me, who have never taken the WASL before?
“We will deal with those students accordingly.”
2) What do you mean, 11 years?
“We have been preparing you for this test for 11 years.”
Umm…actually, I lived in Portland for 12 years….
“They have something similar in Oregon.”
I went to private schools.
“That shouldn’t have made a difference.”
OK, STOP. EXCUSE ME?! There were more, but after those two, I was angry. EXTREMELY angry.”Dealing with students accordingly” was not something I had EVER seen, nor been exposed to, and I was never addressed with any sort of care about the subject. Just ridicule and disappointment.
ALSO.
They DON’T have something similar in Oregon!! Maybe now, but for God’s sake, I was 12 when I moved, and they NEVER HAD ANYTHING LIKE THAT. And yes, being in private schools DOES make a difference, otherwise I would have taken the WASL in Washington my 7th or 8th grade years!!!
It’s things like this that make me fired up about this test.
When I took the WASL first, I was horrendously sick. I would have stayed home to literally cave in on myself, but the system, again, made things difficult by telling me that I would have to come back during the summer if I didn’t take it now or pass it now. I was working in Montana that summer, so there was no option. I had to take it while I was cuddling up to Death, and you can ask anyone at that table, it was a very interesting site to see me silently crying and attempting to breathe without literally passing out on the floor of that icy cold church.
Another thing, by the by. How the heck is ANYONE supposed to do well at the end of SUMMER, in AUGUST, on a test like this. Please. Logicality, my friends. Lacking. Again.
The SECOND time, because I didn’t pass the math section, I was healthy as a horse. The only problem, was that I had given out on math by this point. I never took Trig. And there was most definitely Trig on that test, the second time. I’d never seen, or even glanced at, a lot of the material that was there. And though I’m bad at math, I remember the stuff I look at. It just never clicks. I guessed on almost 75% of that test.
I was prepared to take it again, or go to the state capital and take this test down myself. I was sick and tired of being told “NO YOU CAN’T” because of a standardized piece of s***. Pardon my french.
I passed. Somehow, in heaven’s glorious name, I passed. With what, you ask? 400. The state MINIMUM. I hit the LINE of passing. Just like the author stated, how does that ACCURATELY represent ANYTHING? It doesn’t. All it means is that I guessed well and possibly knew more than I thought. It means jack.
There are kids out there, like the author’s smart little friend, that are handed letters that state that they didn’t pass the test. They get things that say “you should not feel bad, yadda yadda yadda…”
“Should” is a much different word from “will”.
I have a 9 year old brother who was terrified of the WASL. He hasn’t had to go through all the garbage I have, but when he was told that he was being “tested”, he burst into tears and ran to his room, locking the door and refusing to come out. When the family finally got him to calm down enough to talk to him, he looked at me and with those big crocodile tears and an innocent little voice, said quietly…
“I don’t want to be dumb…”
He’s 9, folks. The kid has been told so many times that if he doesn’t fit in, or meet standards, that he is “dumb” or “stupid” or needs “extra help”.
You continue telling me the WASL is necessary, I will continue to fight you. I love my bro. He’s a pain sometimes, yeah, but after what I went through, I refuse to watch my brother, even other kids, go through that.
By the way. My brother wanted to be a doctor when he grew up.
He didn’t pass the math WASL. He suddenly changed his mind after he got the letter. He wants to be a policeman now. I asked him why he didn’t want to be a doctor, when we have so many police officers now and really need doctors.
He looked at me like I should have figured it out by now. “Well, because I can’t.”